Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 08-07-04, Optl, St. Sixtus II & companions, St. Cajetan

From: Matthew 17:14-20

The Curing of an Epileptic Boy

[14] And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling
before him said, [15] "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an
epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire,
and often into the water. [16] And I brought him to your disciples, and
they could not heal him." [17] And Jesus answered, "O faithless and
perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to
bear with you? Bring him here to me." [18] And Jesus rebuked him, and
the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. [19] Then
the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast
it out?" [20] He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For
truly, I say to you, if yo u have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you
will say to this mountain, 'Move hence to yonder place,' and it will
move; and nothing will be impossible to you."

Commentary:

14-21. This episode of the curing of the boy shows both Christ's
omnipotence and the power of prayer full of faith. Because of his deep
union with Christ, a Christian shares, through faith, in God's own
omnipotence, to such an extent that Jesus actually says on another
occasion, "he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and
greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father"
(Jn 14:12).

Our Lord tells the Apostles that if they had faith they would be able
to work miracles, to move mountains. "Moving mountains" was probably a
proverbial saying. God would certainly let a believer move a mountain
if that were necessary for his glory and for the edific ation of one's
neighbor; however, Christ's promise is fulfilled everyday in a much
more exalted way. Some Fathers of the Church (St. Jerome, St.
Augustine) say that "a mountain is moved" every time someone is
divinely aided to do something which exceed man's natural powers. This
clearly happens in the work of our sanctification, which the Paraclete
effects in our souls when we are docile to him and receive with faith
and love the grace given us in the sacraments: we benefit from the
sacraments to a greater or lesser degree depending on the dispositions
with which we receive them. Sanctification is something more sublime
than moving mountains, and it is something which is happening every day
in so many holy souls, even though most people do not notice it.

The Apostles and many saints down the centuries have in fact worked
amazing material miracles; but the greatest and most important miracles
were, are and will be the miracles of souls dead through sin and
ignorance being reborn and developing in the new life of the children
of God.

20. Here and in the parable of Matthew 13:31-32 the main force of the
comparison lies in the fact that a very small seed--the mustard seed--
produces a large shrub up to three meters (ten feet) high: even a very
small act of genuine faith can produce surprising results.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Friday August 6, 2004 Feast of the Transfiguration

Reading I (Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14) Reading II (2 Peter 1:16-19)

Gospel (St. Luke 9:28b-36)

In the Gospel reading today, we hear about Our Lord being transfigured before His apostles, standing with Moses and Elijah who appeared to Him in glory, and Our Lord Himself showing the glory of His divinity. While there are certainly many indications in the Gospel of the divinity of Christ – walking on water, the various miracles that He performed, and so on – these things have also been performed on a human level; by God’s grace, obviously, but when we read the saints there have been some who have done those sorts of things. None, however (to my knowledge, anyway), have been transfigured; it is only the Lord Himself, in a clear demonstration of His divinity. But it is also interesting to note the context in which this transfiguration takes place. It is with Moses and Elijah who appear to Him and they talk about His crucifixion. They talk about the exodus, the Lord going forth from this world to the next – but only through the Cross. Most of us, if somebody talked to us about the suffering we were going to have to endure in order to become truly holy, might get depressed. The Lord, on the other hand, was so filled with the love and the glory of God that He was transfigured, that He glowed.

Now this is something which obviously is a singular event. Yet, at the same time, when we look at the first reading, we see that this is the nature of Who He really was. We hear the prophet Daniel speaking about God the Father and the glory of God. His clothing was bright as snow and His hair as white as wool, and He received glory and dominion. And we hear “One like the Son of Man” coming and sharing in the glory of God. So it is the nature of His divinity, and we even speak that in our creed. He is “God from God and Light from Light,” the brilliance of God, absolutely pure and perfect; there is nothing that hinders the light at all. So what His apostles were able to see was just a mere foreshadowing, not only of what Our Lord would be and what they would behold in the glory of heaven, but what they themselves would be as they united themselves with Christ. They were able to see what their own glory would look like one day in heaven. Not only did this strengthen them to be able to deal with what was about to happen to Our Lord, but it also strengthened them for what was going to happen to their very selves.

It needs to do the same for us. We need to realize that through all the trials and struggles and difficulties of this life we are transformed, not transfigured per se, but transformed. As Saint Paul says, we go from one degree of glory to the next as we are transformed into Christ. And if we are going to be transformed into Christ, we are going to share in His glory. While we certainly share in that glory in this life through grace, most of us probably are not going to be able to be transfigured, which is just fine – we do not need the attention. But this is what we are going to be forever. This is going to be the glory of the children of God. This is what God has chosen us for. He does not want us to just kind of plod through this life; He does not want us just to be able to behold Him from afar; He wants us to enter into His glory and to be able to share in His glory.

That dark cloud which overcame Peter and James and John with Our Lord is the cloud of God’s glory, the shekinah cloud, as the Jewish people would call it, the “glory cloud”. It is the cloud that filled the meeting tent when Moses met face-to-face with God. It is the cloud that filled the temple when Solomon first dedicated it to the Lord. It is the cloud that overcame our Blessed Lady when she conceived Our Lord in her womb. And it is the same cloud that will overcome us if we are willing to enter into God’s glory. It is called a dark cloud because, as we know, if we try to look at something that is too brilliant we will be blinded, and so God in His mercy lets us enter into the darkness. But it is in the darkness that the brilliance is understood and recognized.

If we are willing to enter into the darkness of prayer, into the abandonment that we sometimes will feel, into the dryness and the depth, but in so doing to know that we are entering into the brilliance of the love of God, it is there that the glory of God will fill us. It is not that we will say with Peter, “Let us build three booths,” because we know that we will never be able to contain God. Rather than trying to fit God into some little pattern of our own, it is just the opposite: We are brought into the glory of God and we will share in the glory of God.

What the apostles saw in the glory of the Transfiguration was the nature of Christ. Yet, for us, it is something which is supernatural, but it is not something which is impossible – for us, yes; for God, no – rather it is what He has held out for us for eternity. So for those who are faithful, for those who unite themselves completely with Our Lord, the glory of the Transfiguration will be ours, to behold Him face-to-face not merely from a distance but from within, to be perfectly united with Him, to have Him within us and to be drawn fully within Him, to share in the glory of the transfigured Christ, to be united with Him in the brilliance of the love of God, and to be able to give Him that glory which is His, but in which we will have a share forever.

ROMAN MISSAL | DOUAY TEXTS (yesterday's worth a look as well, given the strange edits among other things)

.......................... †JMJ† ..........................
---------- 18th Week in Ordinary Time ---------
....................... † AMDG † .......................

Oh wicked and unbelieving generation ... how long shall I suffer you?

FIRST READING -- Habacuc 1:12—2:4
The just, because of their faith, shall live.

Wast thou not from the beginning,
O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die?

Lord, thou hast appointed him for judgment:
and made him strong for correction.
Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and thou canst not look on iniquity.

Why lookest thou upon them that do unjust things,
and holdest thy peace when the wicked
devoureth the man that is more just than himself?

And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea,
and as the creeping things that have no ruler.
He lifted up all them with his hook,
he drew them in his drag, and gathered them into his net:
for this he will be glad and rejoice.

Therefore will he offer victims to his drag,
and he will sacrifice to his net:
because through them his portion is made fat,
and his meat dainty.
For this cause therefore he spreadeth his net,
and will not spare continually to slay the nations.

I will stand upon my watch, and fix my foot upon the tower:
and I will watch, to see what will be said to me,
and what I may answer to him that reproveth me.

And the Lord answered me, and said:
Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables:
that he that readeth it may run over it.

For as yet the vision is far off,
and it shall appear at the end, and shall not lie:
if it make any delay, wait for it:
for it shall surely come, and it shall not be slack.

Behold, he that is unbelieving,
his soul shall not be right in himself:
but the just shall live in his faith.

1 "Will stand"... Waiting to see what the Lord will answer to my complaint, viz., that the Chaldeans, who are worse than the Jews, and who attribute all their success to their own strength, or to their idols, should nevertheless prevail over the people of the Lord. The Lord's answer is, that the prophet must wait with patience and faith: that all should be set right in due time; and the enemies of God and his people punished according to their deserts.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps 9:8-13
Non dereliquísti quæreéntes te, Dómine.
Thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.

But the Lord remaineth for ever.
He hath prepared his throne in judgment:
And he shall judge the world in equity,
he shall judge the people in justice.
Thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.

And the Lord is become a refuge for the poor:
a helper in due time in tribulation.
And let them trust in thee who know thy name:
for thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.
Thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.

Sing ye to the Lord, who dwelleth in Sion:
declare his ways among the Gentiles:
For requiring their blood he hath remembered the:
he hath not forgotten the cry of the poor.
Thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee, O Lord.

ALLELUIA – 2 Tim 1:10
Salvátor noster Iesus Christus destruíxit mortem,
et illuminávit vitam per Evangélium.
R. Alleluia, alleluia
But is now made manifest by the illumination of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who hath destroyed death, and hath brought to light life and incorruption by the gospel:
R. Alleluia, alleluia

10 "By the illumination"... That is, by the bright coming and appearing of our Saviour.

GOSPEL – Matthew 17:14-20
If you have faith, nothing will be imposssible for you.

And when he was come to the multitude,
there came to him a man falling down on his knees before him,
saying: Lord, have pity on my son,
for he is a lunatic, and suffereth much:
for he falleth often into the fire, and often into the water.
And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.

Then Jesus answered and said:
O unbelieving and perverse generation,
how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.

And Jesus rebuked him, and the devil went out of him,
and the child was cured from that hour.
Then came the disciples to Jesus secretly, and said:
Why could not we cast him out?

Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief.

For, amen I say to you,
if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
you shall say to this mountain,
Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove;
and nothing shall be impossible to you.
But this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting.

19 "As a grain of mustard seed"... That is, a perfect faith; which in its properties, and its fruits, resembles the grain of mustard seed, in the parable, chap. 13. 31.

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